Hope you like bugs! Because even when you’re inside, you live among them.
Most of them are harmless and make your life a little easier without you even knowing it, but a lot of pests that live alongside you can cause damage. Here are just a few of the little guys that should be paying you rent:
Aphid:
If you have a house plant, you have plant lice. No getting around that. But they are actually more common in your food.
Aphids are serious pests to cultivated food, and latch themselves to produce that you buy.
Make sure you clean your broccoli and lettuce thoroughly!
Furniture Beetle:
Like their name suggests, you have furniture beetles, too. They burrow into wood fixtures to lay eggs, and are designed to be the perfect baby-makers. Adults don’t eat. Their life span is spent literally just burrowing in and out of wood to lay eggs.
So, if you see little clusters of holes in your furniture, you may have a problem.
Carpet Beetle:
This guy is kinda cute, actually! Of all the bugs that live in your house, he may be the least of your problems. The carpet beetle just spends its life inside your rugs, where it doesn’t really cause problems. They just fester in there and spread around your house. They can be kept down by actually vacuuming your house. Which reminds me…
Earwig:
These little bugs that live in your house are good for the microscopic ecosystem. While they are pests, their job in the food chain is to eat up the other bugs that live in your house.
They’re nocturnal, and sleep in damp places during the day. They get their name because of the myth that they’ll crawl up into your brain at night. But even with their pinchers, they’re relatively harmless to people.
Silverfish:
This may be one of the more creepy ones that have taken up residence in your house. They can grow pretty big for Thysanuras and like to hang out in your bathtub and sinks. They prefer a moist place to hide, which is why they will hide in your shower curtain and surprise you.
They can spend a half hour with one mate fertilizing a batch of eggs.
Lucky bugs!
Firebrat:
Related to the silverfish, firebrats like hotter temperatures near furnaces and stoves. It’s more likely that they will be near your stove, because these bugs that live with you like to eat bread and potatoes. Other than their freak-factor, the worst firebrats can do is get inside your food and contaminate it.
House Centipede:
This is the last bug that lives in your house, and you don’t want to meet it in a back alley. Unlike the centipedes you see outside, these bugs have long, spider-like legs. Its diet is other bugs, which it takes down with venom, and even though bites on humans are rare, they feel like a bee sting. The interesting thing about the house centipede is that it chooses to live with you. It wants to eat the other bugs in your house.
